Our Country's Emblem (1956)

[Music] it work was an exciting day when the class received the envelope from Washington from our government they had written for it and they were eager to see it perhaps a little too eager it was a pamphlet about the Seal of the United States with a picture of the Great Seal our country's emblem now it could become part of the display the display of things that are important to our country such as our country's flag which represents our country and our country's song our national anthem now our country's emblem could be there too for the Great Seal of the United States also stands for our country and tells a story about our country but someone had a question Bill wanted to know why we have a seal and what it's used for then Alice wanted to know why the eagle is there and there were more questions why is the eagle holding the arrows and the branch and what do all the words mean they art in English there were many questions about the Great Seal of the United States why do we have it what do the pictures and words in it mean the story of our country's emblem goes back many years to the days when rulers of Kingdoms would send out writers with proclamations or orders people could tell that an order was official By the Mark at the bottom it was the mark of their ruler his seal it stood for their ruler and their Kingdom seals have been used to make things official for as long as men can remember and so so when our country was founded and began making official agreements and laws we needed a seal to stand for our country many of the new States already had seals of their own but what should the new country seal look like it had to be a seal that would stand for these states and more besides a seal that would stand for all the states and for the country it was hard to decide just how our country seal should look but in 1782 we decided on designs for the two sides of our country seal and in 1789 the year our Constitution was signed it became officially the Great Seal of the United States now the what the class has decided to do they've decided to make a model of the seal to help them understand the seal and the story it tells each part of the seal tells a story about our country the eagle is the main part of one side of our country's emblem why is it there have you ever seen a real Eagle it's a beautiful bird and and a brave one with great powerful wings that carry it high above us as it Soares and swoops it seems to say I am master of myself I am free that's why we chose the American Eagle as our national bird we find pictures and models of it in many places we find the eagle on the uniforms of the armed forces that protect our country on Marine uniforms on army uniforms on Air Force uniforms and on Navy uniforms on the uniforms of all our armed forces the eagle represents the freedom that they defend we often find the eagle on a government building such as a United States Post Office we find Eagles on some of our money the quarter and the half dollar and we find the eagle the American Eagle in our country's emblem the Great Seal of the United States it's stands for our freedom on the Eagle's breast is a shield The Shield has the same colors as our flag red white and blue the 13 red and white stripes stand for the original 13 colonies the blue at the top represents Congress which makes the laws for our country in the capital building in Washington DC so The Shield tells a story about our government and the scroll in the Eagle's mouth tells another story the words on the scroll are Latin e plab unim in English they mean from many one that is from many colonies one nation was formed from many one e orus yum and today many states form One Nation the 13 shining stars that seem to be bursting through the clouds mean that when the 13 colonies became a new nation our nation took its rightful place among the other nations of the world like a group of stars among the other stars in the sky the eagle holds some things in its talents there is an olive branch which stands for our love of peace and there are 13 arrows which mean we will always defend our country this is the side of our great seal that we see most often but what about the other side it also tells a story about our country this is a pyramid we know that there are pyramids in far off Egypt they are made of great blocks of stone and have lasted for thousands of years so the pyramid on our Great Seal means that we hope our country will always be strong and will last Through the Ages as the pyramids have lasted at the top this I and these Latin words mean that God Is Watching Over Us and helping us at the bottom or base of the pyramid in Roman numerals is the year 1776 and the Latin words tell about the importance of that year and so we have learned the story that the Great Seal of the United States tells about our country we can find the seal on dollar bills both sides of the seal are there but when the seal is used on special government documents only the side with the eagle is used but whether only one side or both sides are used our national emblem the Great Seal of the United States stands for our country as does our flag and our national anthem and they are all part of the story of our country